Dear Amber

The following are practical suggestions , based on Incident Command execution, that could help to set a decontamination team and or set practical scenarios to maintain a "ready to go" team.

 

 

I just finished setting up a hazmat team defining the following:

A.       Roles and responsibilities

B.      Duties assignments  based on abilities and day to day task.

C.      Integrating the executive and incident command team into the process.

D.      

The program included class room training, table top for IC personnel and field scenario for the  Hazmat team.

The following are SOME COMMENTS THAT MIGHT HELP

A.	Team member should be acquainted with the PPE
B.	Team member must know the components  of the
C.	Set team members to handle activities that match their abilities and willingness to perform specific tasks such as,  but  not limited to the following :         i.            Decontamination unit set up       ii.            Security ( zone demarcations)     iii.            PPE set up      iv.            Infrastructure ( water, power, decon. water collection,        v.            Decontamination of victims      vi.            Handling of casualties with traumas that are not decontaminated NOTE: decontamination team members should be crossed training in each position
D.	IC staff integration
E.	other

 

SOME GUIDELINE that might help your organization in maintaining an  ever ready team:

 

A.	have a team meeting  on a regular basis to practice; review roles and responsibilities
B.	establish a preventive maintenance and proper storage of equipment and PPE
C.	practice donning the PPE
D.	get other personnel with in the organization to wear the PPE
E.	get the personnel with in the organization to understand  the procedures of decontamination and alerting procedures.
F.	set to a training (education program for executives, incident command team , Hazmat team
G.	NOTE: One day of exercise is not enough. My recommendation is to have regular team meetings within the facility and maintain a good inventory of the equipment and PPE at hand .
H.	other

 

 

 

Amber,
 
For your equipment, please be sure it conforms to the ANSI/ISEA 113 Standard. (American National Standard for Fixed and Portable Decontamination Shower Units)
 
There will soon be available an online Basic HAZMAT Life Support course (BHLS) offered through the same group that provides the Advanced HAZMAT Life Support course (AHLS); http://www.ahls.org.
 
You can also get some very good information and assistance through your regional Poison Center, the North Texas Regional Poison Center located at Parkland Hospital in Dallas; just open any phone book and the 800 number there will automatically connect you to them (provided federal budget cuts haven't yet destroyed the national phone network).
 
Excellent training can be obtained from the FEMA/DHS Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama.  Go through your State DHS coordinator or get back to me for some other contacts.  Also, TEEX in College Station, TX (Associated with Texas A&M University) has some really great training programs in just about everything disasters -- to my mind, the finest training center for all types of disasters I've yet seen.  Google it and talk to a guy named Gordon Lohmier if he's still running some of them.
 
As an Ol' Texas boy who used to practice and teach Emergency Medicine over to the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth and was a USAFR Flight Surgeon at what used to be Carswell AFB when we exercised the entire military-civilian mass casualty program and still does a bit of Forensic Toxicology teaching over at Weatherford College in Weatherford, I'd be happy to assist you.
 
Alan
Alan H. Hall, M.D.
ahalltoxic**At_Symbol_Here**msn.com
President and Chief Medical Toxicologist
Toxicology Consulting and Medical Translating Services, Inc.
Laramie, WY
 
Clinical Assistant Professor
Colorado School of Public Health
University of Colorado-Denver
Denver, CO
 
Senior Advisor
Forensic Science
Weatherford College
Weatherford, TX